EconomicPolicyJournal.com

Why the Facebook IPO Today?

2012-05-18T16:51:00.000-04:00

Hector Roos asks: I don't understand why the Facebook IPO was scheduled on a major holiday. The European markets are closed today for the Feast of the Ascension (which celebrates Jesus being lifted up to Heaven 40 days after his Resurrection like Enoch and Elijah). I don't get it. Why have an IPO when the trading volume is expected to be down and why is CNBC not mentioning this fact? Is

High Jinx in the Land of Offshore Tax Havens

2012-05-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

Jeffrey Tucker writes: Charles Adams is a legendary tax specialist and historian. His book For Good and Evil ranks as among the most influential policy works of the late 20th century. It revealed the largely unknown history of how high taxation has wrecked peace and prosperity from the ancient world to the present, and how tax revolts have been the hidden motivation behind many great political

Krugman as a Blind Astrologer

2012-05-18T15:06:00.000-04:00

Société Générale's strategist Dylan Grice writes: [H]ow can any sane person even question the solvency of government when yields are so low, snort financial ‘astrologers’ like Paul Krugman from their ivory towers. Maybe one reason is that governments have more tricks up their sleeves than the rest of us, like monopoly control of the seniorage industry. Of course, the monopoly central bank money

A Greek Has Figured Out Greece is in Control!

2012-05-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

The head of Greece's radical left party is throwing down a gauntlet that could increase tensions between Greece and its European creditors, reports WSJ. Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country's next prime minister says he sees little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country but that if it does, Greece will

Jesse Benton's $586,616 Take as a Result of the Ron Paul Campaign

2012-05-18T12:32:00.001-04:00

We make not get liberty because of the Ron Paul campaign run, but it sure looks like Ron Paul campaign manager, Jesse Benton, got the big bucks. Benton's total income from the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign and PACs, in the 2012 election cycle, is at least $586,616, EPJ has learned. According to Open Secrets, he has been paid $322, 577 in the 2012 election cycle, by Liberty PAC. His total

The Man Who Took on JPMorgan's Whale Trader

2012-05-18T12:01:00.000-04:00

Business Insider's Julia La Roche, reports that a key trader who took the opposite side of the trade conducted by JPMorgan's whale, revealed his trade at, of all places, at JPMorgan's headquarters, during a conference .Here's LaRoche with the details: Everyone has been talking about how legendary derivatives trader Boaz Weinstein, the founder of Saba Capital and former co-head of credit trading

Krugman Gets Something Right then Shows His Ignorance of Finance

2012-05-18T11:04:00.000-04:00

Paul Krugman correctly writes: Is it possible that I have misjudged Mitt Romney? My take has always been that he’s a smart guy who also happens to be both ambitious and completely amoral; he decided that his career can best be advanced by pandering to the crazies of the right, and will say anything to that end. More and more, however, he has been coming out with statements suggesting that

What I Learned about Life Years after Taking the SATs in My Pajamas

2012-05-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

By James Altucher I showed up at the SATs in my pajamas. I had woken up late for the most important test of my life – the one test that determines what college you get into, which then determines how happy you are, who will marry you, how much money you make, and how many people you can legally kill or maim before they jail you in a minimum security prison while your money rests in Swiss bank

NYC Condo Sold for Record $90 Million

2012-05-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I reported on the strong luxury housing market in and around Beverly Hills, the same goes for the super luxury Manhattan real estate market. A mystery buyer has agreed to pay a record price in New York of more than $90 million for a duplex penthouse at a Midtown tower, reports NYT. The undisclosed purchaser bought the 10,923-square-foot penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors of One57,

Crowd Control Techniques Expected to Be Used by Chicago Police During the NATO Summit

2012-05-18T08:05:00.000-04:00

PoliceOne.com reports: Chicago police are planning a range of tactics — some old, some new — to control protests outside the NATO summit scheduled for May 20 and 21. A look at some crowd-control techniques and the department's position on them: EXTRACTION: Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says officers will attempt to extract individual lawbreakers from crowds to keep problems from

Government Education: No Child Allowed to Advance Too Much

2012-05-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

An EPJ reader emails: Today, I was told some news about how state education works. Our son is in kindergarten. If it were possible, we'd surely send him to a private school, but at this time, we can't. Fortunately, as far as public schools go, he does attend the best grade school in the state...and it's noticeable. They really do put a lot of effort into educating the kids.It doesn't change my

Who Are the People Leaving the Workforce?

2012-05-17T16:44:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot of talk about the number of people leaving the workforce. Who are these people? Julie Hotchkiss at the Atlanta Fed explains: Using the latest survey data we have available (November 2011), we find that most nonparticipants are retired (48 percent); the share who are in school, disabled, or taking care of household members are 18 percent, 16 percent, and 15 percent,

Is Ed Crane Counting His Days at Cato?

2012-05-17T15:59:00.002-04:00

Sources tell me that Cato president Ed Crane thinks he may not survive at Cato and is contemplating setting up his own think tank. Will money really follow Crane?

Bidding Wars for Luxury Homes are Back in Beverly Hills

2012-05-17T15:05:00.000-04:00

Bidding wars are breaking out for luxury homes in such wealthy Los Angeles enclaves as Brentwood, Beverly Hills and Bel Air as an increasing number of buyers bet on rising home prices and investors return to the market. Even properties in need of extensive renovation are being fought over by shoppers who expect to resell them for more after a remodel or rebuild, reports Bloomberg. “The

Who Does Debra Katz Represent and What Does She Have to Say About Cato?

2012-05-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

Details of the inside Cato drama continue to develop. EPJ has learned that a former female Cato employee retained Washington D.C. lawyer Debra Katz to represent her in matters concerning Cato and a certain high level Cato employee. According to the Katz web site, Katz is: Recognized as one of the “toughest” employment lawyers in Washington, D.C. by Washingtonian magazine, and recognized as an

The IMF Reports on the Slow Motion Bank Run in Greece

2012-05-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

In a newly released report, the IMF says: The steady outflows – a major deposit run has been avoided – appear driven by private sector dissaving as well as by capital flight to safe-havens outside of Greece (the latter representing about a quarter of total withdrawals).... The Eurosystem has stepped into the breach and by end-2011 had provided nearly €130bn (or 60 per cent of GDP) in support.

Rules of Trading in a POW Camp

2012-05-17T12:30:00.000-04:00

By Tim Harford Robert A. Radford had, in some ways, a perfectly conventional career as an economist. He studied the subject at Cambridge in the late 1930s, before war interrupted, and his civilian working life was spent at the International Monetary Fund. But he also spent half the war in a German prison camp, and on his release wrote an article in the LSE journal Economica. The “Economic

A Shrewd Greek Lefty is Holding the Eurozone Hostage

2012-05-17T11:27:00.000-04:00

Below is a fascinating interview by CNN's Christiane Amanpour with Alexis Tsipris, leader of Greece's Syriza party. Tsipris gets it. If the eurozone lets Greece exit the EZ, Spain, Portugal and Italy are not far behind. Tsipris doesn't want Greece to leave the EZ, he wants a "growth" plan from the EZ, not an austerity program. By growth program he means more money printing by the ECB with the

Are Some Ron Paul Supporters Going Rogue?

2012-05-17T10:29:00.000-04:00

Lew Rockwell points to a column appearing in the Christian Science Monitor that says: Are some Ron Paul supporters going rogue and confronting the Republican Party in a manner of which Mr. Paul himself would not approve? That question arises due to what went down on the evening of May 15 at a meeting of the Clark County GOP in Nevada. At the confab, Paul supporters pushed through a resolution

Can You Qualify for a Job as an Asteroid Miner Robot Builder?

2012-05-17T09:43:00.000-04:00

Planetary Resources was founded by private spaceflight pioneers Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson. Its investors include Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who are worth $16.7 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively. Filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron, former NASA astronaut Tom Jones and MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager are advisers. Less than three weeks after officially unveiling

Are You in the Koch Brothers Database?

2012-05-17T08:58:00.000-04:00

From Reuters: In 2008, Catalist helped the left win the technology battle. The database allowed unions and the Obama campaign to manage volunteers without stepping on each other's toes. Meanwhile, analysts could look for patterns in oceans of data that had been held in small pools by separate groups. Now, Charles and David Koch, who have quietly bankrolled libertarian organizations such as

Report: Japanese Pension Fund Buying Gold

2012-05-17T08:05:00.000-04:00

This is coming from, of all people, gold-hater Nouriel Roubini in a tweet: Reports a Japanese pension fund is buying gold to escape sov risk go against trend of USD beating gold as a safe haven.

Is It Really Over?

2012-05-16T22:36:00.001-04:00

Telma Reed emails: My husband Nate and I, got energized by Ross Perot when he ran for president and even endured with some neighbor/friends a bus ride from Kansas City to St. Louis to hear Ross speak. It was a good speech and when he basically dropped out and then started up again I wondered why I even bothered caring. Nate and I both were new to Austrian Economics at that time but Nate who

Lew Rockwell Attacked

2012-05-16T19:05:00.001-04:00

Writes Republican congressional aide Benjamin Rothenberg: Hi Lew, your an idiot just like your Paulitard and OWS friends. Have a nice day and remember, nobody gives a damn what you have to say. Rothenberg is a Director of New Media and Press Aide for Rep. Thaddeus McCotter and a former underwear salesman at Jos. A. Bank.

Tom Palmer's Idea of a "Gleaming Headquarters of the Liberty Movement"

2012-05-16T18:14:00.001-04:00

A friend just received an invitation from Cato's Tom Palmer, which begins: I’m writing in the hope that we can meet this summer, July 29-August 3, in the new and gleaming headquarters of the liberty movement, the Cato Institute, where we’ll be holding Cato University. Cato University is for people who didn’t stop thinking after they got out of school. It’s for people who don’t want politicians